~ All of my early, horrible writing, and what works for me!

Monday Murder: Draft One

The rest of the week passed by way too quickly. I went and did my usual grocery shopping. I talked on the phone with some of the other teachers. Everyone seemed paranoid. They were all talking about everyone else, but everyone seemed to think the most likely person was the principal. Everyone else had brought their gloves home. It was perfect. Nobody thought it was me. They would all be surprised if they ever found out, not that I planned to let them find out.

I arrived at the school early the next Monday morning. I had to pass by the spot that I dropped the body off to get to my room. It was in the middle of the main hallway, nowhere close to any of the classrooms. It’s not like I could just drop it off outside of my classroom. That would be way too suspicious.

All of the teachers other teachers were there already, broken off into groups. I could hear them in parts. I would hear things like, “Well, what if it wasn’t the principal?” or “What about Jennifer or Jenny? They still have those days…” I went along further to hear “Kevin has threatened to kill the kids a lot. I thought he was joking but what if he wasn’t?” “Sheila hates her job… But Benjamin hates this job too…” Then there was, “I think it’s possible Margaret did it.”

That’s when I paused. I couldn’t tell who was talking, but I listened outside the door. “Margaret the teacher or the principal?”

“The teacher. She has the look of a murderer. She’s always rough on the kids.”

“Well, so is the principal…”

“Yeah, true. We’ll had to keep an eye out for the murderer. I just have this feeling that it’s one of the Margaret’s.”

I walked away, thinking about all I heard and made my way down to the end of the hall where my room was getting ready for the day. Even I was under suspicion with some of the teachers. I would get to where I wasn’t. I wasn’t worried about it. I would be the one that got out from under suspicion first. Then, I would be able to ditch this place and get to my family.

The day passed by in a blur. It was lucky kindergarten was only half a day. Not very many kids were there. I was glad. None of the kids were interested in being there. All they could talk about was Toby, though. Couldn’t we just move on from the miserable kid? He was a brat, after all. All of them were, of course, but he was the one that was the most miserable throughout the entire school. Somehow, I had the feeling that we wouldn’t be seeing a lot of these kids again because of the case. I was fine with that. I hated most of these kids anyway.

Lisa came up to me after school. “Teacher, who killed Toby?” Great. A little kid was asking me. I could tell her the truth, but I can’t risk it. Kids have no filter.

“Well, I don’t know. That’s what these nice policemen are trying to find out. Make sure to stay out of their way so they can find out, okay?”

“Okay, teacher.” She rushed out to find her friends. It was, of course, a little uncomfortable to see all of Toby’s friends who were extremely upset about losing their friend to play with. Oh, well. It’s a fact of life to lose someone you care about. I lost my great-grandfather. Sure, it’s a little different. I mean, my great-grandfather was old and this kid was only five, but hey, it’s the same idea of losing someone you care about. It’s not only old people that die sometimes.

I was headed out to the car when Jenny caught up to me. “The police think they have a lead. It’s not good. They think I did it.” Perfect. I had her right where I wanted her. It was so hard to keep a concerned look without laughing and rejoicing. I would have to save that for when I was at home.